As a guy from Philadelphia, I’ve always felt a kinship with M. Night Shyamalan. The filmmaker who made plot twists hip again is a Philly guy, and a large chunk of his movies are set in the City of Brotherly Love. As a result, when I watch an M. Night movie, I often spot locations that are overly familiar to me. This turns me into the “pointing Leo” meme, and I sit up, point at the screen, and say “Hey, I know where that is!” It’s like a little treat. But beyond Shyamalan’s penchant for using Philadelphia as a setting, I also just really enjoy his films. I’m proud to say that I stuck with the filmmaker while others turned on him, and I was thrilled when he began what is considered his big comeback starting with “The Visit” and continuing with “Split.” After being written off by many critics and moviegoers, and the industry as a whole, Shyamalan was hot again!
You likely know all about his meteoric rise. After his indie drama debut “Praying with Anger” (1992) and the forgotten family film “Wide Awake” (1998), Shyamalan broke out in a huge way with the 1999 ghost story “The Sixth Sense.” While that movie got a lot of press because of its big twist, it was also just a damn good movie overall, and more or less gave Shyamalan carte blanche to do whatever the hell he wanted. And what he wanted to do was follow things up with “Unbreakable,” a movie that was a serious drama … about superheroes. The superhero movie boom would make such an idea commonplace, but it was somewhat radical when “Unbreakable” arrived in 2000. M. Night followed that up with one of his biggest blockbusters, the alien invasion thriller “Signs.” But While “Signs” garnered good reviews and even better box office returns, there was a sense that people were starting to grow a little tired of Shyamalan’s schtick. The downfall began. Shyamalan’s next movie, “The Village,” was also a box office hit — but critics weren’t happy with it, and audiences felt hoodwinked by the marketing, which tried to sell the film as a full-blown horror movie, something it absolutely was not.
Shyamalan pressed on, but his “brand” was damaged. His next movie, “Lady in the Water,” was not well-received at all. Nor was his wonderfully silly B-movie “The Happening.” “The Last Airbender” wasn’t a total flop, but it wasn’t a hit either — and fans downright hated it. Things had gotten so dire for Shyamalan that when his next movie, the Will Smith sci-fi film “After Earth,” arrived, Shyamalan’s name was left out of the trailers, as if the studio was afraid mentioning him would turn people off. Some of us might’ve called it quits at this point, but not Shyamalan. His next film, 2015’s “The Visit,” was financed entirely by Shyamalan himself. And his gamble paid off: audiences had fun and critics called it a return to form. M. Night was back, baby!
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